A slide door opening and closing apparatus for a vehicle including a power slide door device is disclosed in JP 2001-182401A. The slide door opening and closing apparatus is provided with a latch unit holding a vehicle slide door in a closed state relative to a vehicle body and a locking actuator used for releasing the latch unit.
In this type of slide door opening and closing apparatus for a vehicle, when the user tries to open the slide door of the locked vehicle, the locked state of the driver's seat is released by a first operation conducted by using a remote controller. The locked state of the other seats is released by a second operation conducted by using the remote controller. In the state, an outside handle of the slide door is operated to activate the power slide door device, and the slide door is automatically opened.
However, if the user would like to open the slide door quickly and operates the outside handle prematurely, an open lever connecting to an outside handle is operated before a locking knob is moved to an unlocked position in response to the operation of the locking lever conducted by the locking actuator. Thus, a slide bush, which engages with an arc-shaped elongated hole and a recessed portion radially extending from the arc-shaped elongated hole, comes in contact with a sidewall of the arc-shaped elongated hole, leading to inability of the locking actuator to unlock.
As a result, a so-called panic state, in which the door to be opened remains locked when the other doors are unlocked, is caused. In order to resolve the panic state, the user has to release his/her hand from the outside handle and brings all of the unlocked doors into the locked state again. Then, the operation of the outside handle has to be reattempted.
Technology, which is meant to resolve the panic state, is disclosed in JP 2004-44360A. According to the disclosure of JP 2004-44360A, a locking lever (lock lever) is composed of a main lever, a sub lever and a spring. The main lever and the sub lever are rotatable relative to each other, and the spring is disposed between the main lever and the sub lever. Even if the outside handle and the like are operated concurrently with the operation of the locking actuator and the like in the locked state, the locked state is switched to the unlocked state by returning the outside handle and the like to the original position. Hence, the second switching operation to the unlocked state becomes unnecessary, and thus reducing complexity of the operation.
If a vehicle adopts a so-called smart entry system (keyless entry system), which is a communicating door opening and closing system, a vehicle's owner (hereinafter, referred to as the user) approaching the vehicle is authenticated by wireless transmission of a portable unit, and the approach of the user's hand to the door handle is detected to switch the locked state of the vehicle slide door to the unlocked state. In the case that the smart entry system includes a power slide door device, normally, an open lever, which is rotated by the operation of the outside handle, is connected to a release actuator. Thus, even if the outside handle is not operated, the open lever is operated by operating the release actuator. Further, in the smart entry system, it is expected that the latch is brought to the unlatched state by operating the release actuator, regardless of whether the locking knob is in the locked state or not.
Namely, in the apparatus disclosed in JP 2004-44360A, as shown in FIG. 3, two arc-shaped elongated holes are defined at an open lever. A cable, which is connected to an outside handle of an outside handle unit, is slidably engaged with one of the arc-shaped elongated holes. Further, not shown in FIG. 3, a cable (not shown), which is connected to the release actuator, is slidably engaged with the other elongated hole.
However, the panic state is still unsolved in this structure. For example, when a passenger tries to get in the vehicle from a rear slide door and operates the door handle before the vehicle door is switched from the locked state to the unlocked state, assuming that the door has been unlocked, similarly to the above-described example, the rear slide door is not opened (the latch is not released). Further, even if the release actuator is operated with the outside handle pulled, the cable connected to the release actuator is simply slid relative to the arc-shaped elongated hole and the open lever is not operated. Thus, the latch is not released. In order to release the latch, the release actuator has to be operated after the outside handle is returned to the original position and the switching operation of the locking knob to the unlocked state is conducted.
Thus, even in the door locking apparatus disclosed in JP 2004-44360A, when the outside handle is operated before the locking knob is switched to the unlocked state, the user has to return the outside handle and switch the locking knob from the locked state to the unlocked state. Then, the door is opened (the latch is released) by operating the release actuator.
A need exists for a door opening and closing apparatus for a vehicle which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.